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Youth music and politics in post-war Sierra Leone*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2010

Susan Shepler
Susan Shepler*
Affiliation:
American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016, USA
*
Email: Shepler@american.edu
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Abstract

The brutal, eleven-year long civil war in Sierra Leone has been understood by many scholarly observers as ‘a crisis of youth’. The national elections of 2007 were notable for an explosion of popular music by young people directly addressing some of the central issues of the election: corruption of the ruling party and lack of opportunities for youth advancement. Though produced by youth and understood locally as youth music, the sounds were inescapable in public transport, markets, and parties. The musical style is a combination of local idioms and West African hip-hop. The lyrics present a young people's moral universe in stark contrast to that of their elders. This paper addresses the themes of these election-focused songs as well as the emerging subaltern youth identity discernible in supposedly less political songs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2010 , pp. 627 - 642
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

Research travel was made possible by a 2007 American University Faculty Research Support Award.

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